By The Bay Bridged|October 10, 2017|Comments Off on Sponsored: Fantastic Negrito pushes back at The UC Theatre this weekend

There are few artists more emblematic of the Oakland music scene than Fantastic Negrito.

Rocketed to fame after winning NPR's inaugural Tiny Desk Contest a few years ago, he's finally experiencing well-won success after a lifetime in the industry. Starting by sneaking into UC Berkeley's practice rooms to teach himself piano, he's now a Grammy-holding, internationally-known, Bernie Sanders-backed recording artist. And he's not leaving Oakland. Ever.

Never one to appease label-dictated standards of musical decorum, his work covers some of the most pressing social issues Oakland lives under today: namely, the cultural flattening of neighborhoods and the attendant housing insecurity it creates for long-time residents. His last record, The Last Days of Oakland, details down to the last note the experience of watching your city, the city you've called home since the age of 12, morph into a homogeneous, sanitized, $6-latte playground for the tech elite.

To fight back even just a little bit, The UC Theatre is hosting the a night of his Push Back tour, a homecoming show after being on the road with Sturgill Simpson for the last month. "Push Back" isn't just the name of his latest single, the video for which is below, it's a call to action: in this context, "Push Back" means to, well, push back against whatever's holding you down: rent hikes, flagrant discrimination, widespread injustice.

In keeping with Negrito's all-Oakland all-the-time vibe, the lineup for this show is 100% Oakland based: MAD NOISE roll Oakland's natural diversity into a funk-blues-acoustic mashup, and the Jamming Nachos are a rising, Afropunk-approved rock and roll band. So come and and support your local scene. It's not the biggest push back, but it's at least a nudge.

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Founded in 2006, The Bay Bridged is a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization utilizing new media and presenting live events to support the San Francisco Bay Area’s indie rock, folk, and pop music communities.

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Founded in 2006, The Bay Bridged is a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization utilizing new media and presenting live events to support the San Francisco Bay Area’s indie rock, folk, and pop music communities. Our mission is to maintain a dedicated public education campaign to encourage public appreciation of San Francisco Bay Area independent music and to provide unique opportunities for local musicians to perform, receive exposure, collaborate,
and create original works.